Mind and Cognition in Nineteenth-Century Literature

Abstract

This chapter examines the ways that nineteenth-century literature engages with and influences changing ideas about mental processes. The first two sections survey key developments in literary discussions of mind and cognition: a tension between the “unity of the mind” and psychologies that multiplied the mind into an array of discrete, encapsulated powers; a recognition of the distinctive nature of social processes, such as mental state ascription and perspective-taking; and a set of approaches that picture mental processes as involving the body or even as extending out into the extrabodily world. The final section turns to Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion as a case study that touches on each of those areas of concern. In particular, while Persuasion has frequently been read as portraying contagious, transpersonal affective states, this chapter argues that it also frames cognitive states, such as beliefs, evaluations, and decisions, as interpersonally extended. In her treatment of tacit assent, vicarious agency, and the conscious offloading of judgments and decisions, Austen makes Anne Elliot’s story of persuasion and persuadability part of a longer conversation about intermental cognition.